This invention relates to an ammunition handling system usable in military vehicles for storing individual rounds in the vehicle hull, and transferring same to the firing chamber of the vehicle main gun without human assistance, other than control operations.
The invention has some general similarities to the system shown in copending patent application, Ser. No. 238,313 filed on Feb. 26, 1981 in the names of Dabrowski et al, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,854. The present invention seeks to provide an ammunition storing-loading system having the following general advantages:
1. number of stored rounds is not limited by the size of the gun turret,
2. turret movement is unencumbered by a large mass of ammunition,
3. ammunition is stored in, protected positions within the hull, not in the bustle of the turret where the rounds would have greatest exposure to enemy fire,
4. rounds are loadable into the gun in any rotated position of the turret, i.e. the turret does not have to return to a fixed start position to retrieve a selected round,
5. during any given gun-loading cycle only the selected round has to be moved, thus minimizing peak power requirements, and
6. ammunition-transfer operations are performed by multiple power systems that operate independently of one another, whereby many of the movements can be performed simultaneously or at selected times, thus potentially reducing the gun-load cycle time.